Jaha Dukureh, who is leading the campaign to end female genital mutilation in the US, and the head of the joint UNFPA/UNICEF project to end FGM Nafissatou Diop, and Shelby Quast, senior policy advisor at Equality Now joined Guardian readers for a discussion about female genital mutilation.

Jaha's petition on Change.org is backed by congressman Joe Crowley, UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, and the Guardian. The petition is calling for a new study to find out just how many girls and women are affected by FGM in the US, as the first step to forming a national action plan to tackle the practice. The number of American women and girls affected or at risk is believed to have grown by 35% to at least 228,000 between 1997 and 2000.

Jaha has said she is determined to keep fighting until FGM is recognised as a real risk for American girls and policies are put in place to protect them. "I don’t want to be poster child. I want every woman who has been through this to be able to speak out," she says.

I don't know what kind of "national action plan" or "policies put in place" are envisioned, as the practice is already against the law in the US. Are the immigrants from these countries simply clueless, or are they purposely breaking the law? I assume the latter, as some of them send their daughters back to the old country for the procedure. What's needed is for specific complaints to be made by friends, relatives, or the girls themselves so that criminal charges can be filed. So maybe it's a question of "raising consciousness" about the law.

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The law that makes it illegal to take a child outside the US for purposes of FGM was just passed in 2013, thanks to the efforts of Cong Crowley and Senator Reid. A strategic national action plan would be a multi-sectoral approach that includes immigration officials, health professionals, teachers, law enforcement, survivors. We need to raise awareness of the issue and begin discussions among communities where FGM is practiced in their home country. We need to work with those that are in contact with girls at risk and their families and communities. Now that we have a law we need a plan to implement it.

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It is important that countries budget and support programmes to end FGM and address the health issues caused by the practice of FGM - they should stand alongside NGOs and communities organizations working to END FGM. Sensitive media coverage and the voices of survivors can help accelerate the social changes needed to end this practice.

Like Shelby mentioned it is very important that countries have programs in place to fight FGM and protect girls at risk. The UK has a lot of programs in place but The US has very few if any. It will be easier for girls to report these acts if they know that they are reporting it to someone that understands them and not treat them like a freak show. Raising consciousness but also working with community partners.

If FGM is wrong in America, it is wrong everywhere else. How do you suggest joining the fight to end FGM globally, especially when Westerners are called imperialists or even racists when trying to fight against it in countries abroad where mutilators hide behind "tradition"?

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It is important to be culturally sensitive when we promote the abandonment of a practice like FGM. It is deeply rooted in culture and external intervention can be seen as aggression. Using terminology as "fight" can be counterproductive. FGM should be everybody concerns what ever religion, color or part of the world you are/are living. It is a global issue today. Engagement in the campaign is important but with cultural sensitivity. You cannot tell people that they are wrong and barbarians, but you can support their understanding and realization that there are other options.

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As FGM is often perceived of by those who practice it as part of both their tradition and identity, attempts by outsiders, particularly Westerners, to eradicate the practice can reinforce the perception that this is an essential part of what makes them (i.e. adherents to it) who they are and (in the US) something that keeps them from losing their roots and values.

As a survivor yourself, you are an ideal person to lead such a campaign, but could bringing the US government into your efforts backfire? Is there a risk that such an effort would further ingrain the perception that their culture and roots are at risk, a feeling that often underlies adherence to the practice in the first place?

On a related note, do you think the government would be more effective than grassroots individuals like yourself (working in concert) in gathering statistics and information on such a private issue? Would women (especially teenage women) be less likely to speak of this to someone seen as collecting data?

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Dogwood, thank you so much for this question. On a grass root level there is only so much that we can do. I think survivors and the practicing community in general will be more open to listening to someone like me than someone from the outside. The reason I want the government to get involve is because they have the resources while we don’t. Collecting the statics will take funding and resources. At a community level I have been heavily involved in community outreach, workshop and these are things I plan to continue working on. Collecting the statistics is the first step and I think after we have that organizations like Safe Hands for Girls and Equality Now can identify the best way to tackle it domestically.

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The fight to end FGM is not a Western lead issue. The African Union called on the United Nations to pass a resolution calling on ALL countries to End FGM. This effort at the UN was lead by African countries, including Burkina Faso. Equality Now has worked with African grassroots organizations working to end FGM in their communities for over 20 years. If anything, the West is following Africa's lead on this.

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In the US, while FGM has been illegal since 1996, we just closed the loophole that allowed girls to be taken outside the country for "vacation FGM" in 2013. The public is just learning that girls are being taken out of the US for purposes of FGM. Brave survivors are standing up and saying it happened to them and we need to do something. In the UK, they are just having their first prosecution. Your voice, together with survivors like Jaha, can help ensure that the US develops a strategy to protect girls from FGM and provide support and services to survivors. Now that the discssion has begun, it will be hard to hide it away again. Raise your voice!

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Thank you so much for your question, I think it has taken so long because politicians are afraid to deal with other people’s culture and a lot of people feel that the topic is too sensitive to address and they don’t want to come off as racist.

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This has been a hidden crime for such a long time. There are so many survivors here is the US. We have heard from some that they feel a sense of shame or unease about talking about something so private or feel that people do not want to hear such things. It is with great pride that we can stand beside leaders like Jaha who have the courage to speak out. When we can openly discuss FGM and support survivors as well as protect girls at risk, we have a much better chance of achieving social change and Ending FGM.

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Are you/your Organisation exclusively focused on FGM or are you also trying to include an explicit right for bodily integrity into national legislation, Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

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At Equality Now we work with local partners to promote and protect the human rights of girls around the world, including ending harmful practices such as FGM. There is an existing human rights legal framework in place and we need to advocate for countries to stand up to their obligations and implement this framework to protect girls. Girls must be at the foundation of the UN Post 2015 Development Agenda.

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There are men in countries like The UK and The US that are against FGM. Our communities make it hard to speak against it because then you are seen as too western or sometimes even anti religion. When it comes to Imams there are few that publicly speak against it while some are for it.

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Dear Jaha, Nafissatou and Shelby,

What plans do you have to target communities as well as the individuals and the families affected by FGM? What strategies do you have in mind to create awareness about FGM within communities that respects everyone and their opinions, and those communities' traditions and customs, and to encourage communities themselves to commit to changing their culture and eliminating FGM of their own free will?

In short, you have to cultivate a climate within communities where social change is possible and people themselves come to see the benefits of such change. How do you plan to go about doing that?

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Thank you very much for this question. It is important to involve the community is there is to be real change. But that must be balanced with protecting the health and human rights of girls. In our last meeting with out 30 organizations across Africa working to end FGM in their communities they all called laws to be in place as well as community dialogue, education from health professionals on the harm that results from FGM, mothers talking with daughters, daughters talkign with fathers, but most importantly on prioritizing the value of girls in their communities

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In a lot of countries interventions are on going to facilitate community dialogue on the issue, men and women discussions, inter-generational discussions. As you said the change need to come from within. By bringing information on human rights and health and creating the space for dialogue you are building the ground. Then it is important that those who start to re-consider the practice reach out to their networks, debate and convince others to reconsider the practice. Providing space for making public these commitment to change a norm of cutting in a norm of non cutting is a key element.

Some of the plans that we have is working with pediatricians in FGM practicing communities as well as community leaders. We plan on creating brochures that families can go over with their pediatrician. We also plan to train survivors on doing workshops in their own communities to convince parents not to mutilate their daughters. We are trying to break the cycle from mother to daughter.

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The law can be a tool to raise awareness to protect children and address this harmful practice and a human rights abuse of children. Using a multi-sectoral approach including government, healthcare, education can help change harmful social norms. But when the practice does not stop and girls are dying, prosecuting perpetrators shows the state is serious about protecting girls. You can read about the prosecution of a doctor that performed FGM in Egypt where the girl died: www.equalitynow.org/press_clip/egyptian_doctor_to_stand_trial_over_girls_fgm_death

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Prosecution will help but the most effective tool has been education, raising awareness and working with practicing communities. We have to use the tools that we have in this great country, from healthcare to schools and law enforcement to make sure no girl is ever at risk of this harmful practice.

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You can sign Jaha's petition to ENDFGM www.change.org/petitions/end-fgm-now-protect-girls-from-getting-cut-and-support-victims-of-female-genital-mutilation-in-the-usa and you can ask you Congressman to call on the US Administration to develop a strategic action to END FGM and you can help raise awareness among your friends and colleagues, see The Equality Now factsheet on FGM in the US www.equalitynow.org/FGM_in_US_FAQ

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We have heard from many of our parnter organizations and survivors in Africa that Ending FGM is about moving forward and protecting those girls at risk. Many survivors like Jaha are stepping forward to protect their daughters and future generations through openly discussing the issues that had previously been hidden.

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There are men in countries like The UK and The US that are against FGM. Our communities make it hard to speak against it because then you are seen as too western or sometimes even anti religion. When it comes to Imams there are few that publicly speak against it while some are for it.

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Can you present to us some programs that have proved effective in reducing FGM, perhaps contrasted with others that are less effective or counterproductive?

Can you tell us what kind of discourses and debates go on within communities that practice FGM? Do people discuss the legal and social opposition they face in Western countries when discussing the decision? Is there a wide range of opinions? Why do they say they are willing to break the law? How do they respond to information about the damage they may inflict on their daughters? If there's dissent who has the last say? How do people and families change their mind? Do they face pushback? Can they be better supported?

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Programs that I have seen to be effective in fighting FGM has been mostly education and awareness in not only practicing communities but the general population as well. The less effective programs have been associating FGM with religion and not reasoning with practicing families. Even though the US has strong laws in place, practicing communities rarely know what these laws are. The law that was passed with the Help of Congressman Joseph Crowley has an educational provision in it but no educational awareness has gone into these communities. The Laws in the US are not implemented and practicing communities know this hence why they say they are willing to break the law. I am sure if we implement the laws we have we will see less FGM.

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Addressing FGM can be complex and over the years of working with local partners we have learned that a multi-sectoral approach has been most effective. It requires not only laws but support from the health sector, educations, community leaders, etc. Girls that are aware of their rights are often active in fighting to end this practice. Kenya is a great example.

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I believe FGM is done to women by other women because this is a tradition that has been handed down for centuries and these women actually believe they are doing good by mutilating girls. In FGM practicing communities it is always women that do the mutilating.

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The very best of luck in your campaign. I really admire what you are doing.

What I would like to know is, are the parents who are more likely to subject their daughters to this particularly religiously devout? I realize that FGM takes place across a region that takes in several religions, but my understanding is that parents are sometimes under the misapprehension that it is a religious requirement when it is not.

If so, what role do you think religious leaders can lay in helping to spread the word that FGM is not a religious requirement and is actually very harmful? Do you think it would help if, say, religious leaders such as Coptic Priests or Imams (or whoever else) made a point of actively preaching against FGM from their pulpits? or doing outreach work into affected communities? It seems a horrific shame that whilst some preachers and scholars of various beliefs are indeed preaching against it, that the word still hasn't sufficiently spread.

How can religious leaders and scholars support you and your campaign and thus help children?

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FGM is not prescribed by any religion, however a lot of practicing communities associate it with religion and one pace of our campaign has been getting religious leaders to condemn the act and help their communities understand that it is a harmful practice. Sometimes it’s hard to find religious leaders that will support your message but we have found some in the communities we work in.

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FGM is a tradition that was in place before Christianity and Islam. There have been a lot of investigation done by Muslim scholars to delink the practice from Islam. You are right that the involvement of religious leaders in the campaign to abandon FGM is key. There are fantastic Imam, Priests and Pastors champions of FGM abandonment. We should continue to involve them and give them spaces to communicate.

I wholeheartedly agree with the end FGM, my question is shoUld it be allowed medically at eighteen or be banned outright? I dont want to equate it to the circiumcision of infants but it is similar in thay its a mystical religious ceremony used on people who do not require or cannot consent to it, should that be banned or raised to eighteen along with FGM even if its seemly less harmful?

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FGM need to be banned worldwide. You cannot allow it under any circumstances. FGM conducted by medical personnels is called "medicalization of FGM" It it unethical and all medical professionals associations condemned it. All legislation criminalizing FGM there is a sanction and penalty for medical personnel.